Question

In the context of this exercise, what are some things that a bar chart with error can tell us?

Answer

Bar charts with error can tell us a few different qualities about the data.

One thing that error bars can tell us is the range of the values. The height of the bars of a bar chart typically represents the average of the values, while the error bars can show us the range of the lowest to the highest value contained in the data. By showing the range of lowest to the highest value, we can know that all the data falls within the error bars.

In addition, the actual sizes of the error bars can tell us how close, or how accurate, the data is. If the error bars are short, then this means that the values are close together. However, if the error bars are large, then the values must be spread out.